DVD backup subtitle manipulation

[tux99]

I have a VIDEO_TS folder containing a backup of a DVD (done with k9copy, just the main feature, no menues or extras), I also have an english .sub subtitle file for this movie, can anyone suggest a procedure how to add this subtitle track to the existing ifo/vob file structure using Linux?

 

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[ianw1974]

Check to see if dvdrip might do it for you, but it'll mean ripping the DVD from the VOB files you have now, for it to read and maybe apply the subtitles to an AVI. Then you could use another app to convert the avi back to VOB files again with the subtitles built into the movie.

 

It's all I can think of right now. Either that, or use DVDRIP to rip the original DVD again and ensure that you use the subtitles from the original DVD to be applied into the avi file.

[tux99]

thanks for the suggestion but I don't want to needlessly convert the existing audio and video streams, because apart from the fact that that takes quite some time, the conversion process would reduce the picture quality.

The original DVD doesn't have english subtitles. I want to add english subtitles (that I downloaded from some web site) to it.

 

I found there are a whole bunch if CLI programs that deal with subtitles and as far as I can see all I would need to do is find the right ones to convert the .sub subtitle format into the vob subtitle format and then add it to the existing vob that contains the audio and video tracks.

 

I just haven't found much helpful documentation that explains to someone like me who hasn't done this before, step by step how to do it.

That's what ideally I'm after!

[Greg2]

Have you looked at the subtitleeditor in the Mandriva repo. There's a newer version in the Contrib Backports. It's a GTK2 app to edit subtitles.

 

Here's the URL:

http://home.gna.org/subtitleeditor/

[tux99]

I can't find it in the 2008.1 (the Mandriva version I use on my desktop PC) repos, what is the package name? Is it maybe 2009 only?

 

Looking more at the description on the webpage, I don't think it can do what I want, it's seems just a (very good) subtitle editor, not a program that adds a subtitle track into a vob file.

 

I'm thinking it must be possible with the trancode package tools plus maybe some additional tool, but the transcode man page is depressing, 2817 lines full of audio/video techie language!! :o (compared to that a Bind or Apache manual is a walk in a park!)

[Greg2]

The package name is subtitleeditor, but I just checked and it's not even in the 2008.1 backport repo. It's in 2009.0 only. I just thought I'd point it out to you, there's a source tarball there if you think it would help you.

[tux99]

thanks, I might try to compile it from source to check it out, but from what I understand from the website, it doesn't seem to be capable of what I want to do.

 

I'm convinced a couple of CLI comands which I probably already have installed (I installed all mdv repo packages that could in any way remotely be related to what I want to do) with the right parameters will do what I want, it's just the figuring out which comands with what parameters that's daunting as I have no experience with altering movie files and the related man pages look like japanese motorcycle repair manuals written in japanese to me.... :unsure: